An agreement between a consumer and a communication service provider, such as an Internet service provider (ISP) or a wireless service provider, typically involves a limitation on the usage of the consumer. For example, the use of a cell phone may be limited in the number of minutes, texts, or amount of data used on the cell phone. Similarly, a home ISP subscriber may be limited in the amount of data downloaded to or uploaded from the subscriber's home network.
Many modern mobile devices are capable of wirelessly connecting to a second device, such as a wireless router or another mobile device, and take advantage of the connections of the second device to perform communication operations. For example, a guest with a smart phone may connect to a wireless router at a host's home and browse the Internet or stream a movie over the wireless router's Internet connection instead of over the smart phone's cellular connection.